Sixto Rodriguez
Sixto Díaz Rodríguez (also known as Rodríguez or as Jesús Rodríguez; born July 10, 1942) is an American folk musician based in Detroit, Michigan. Life Overview His career initially proved short-lived with 2 little-sold albums in the early 1970's and some brief touring in Australia. Unbeknownst to him, however, his work proved extremely successful and influential in South Africa, although he was mistakenly rumored in that country to have committed suicide. In the 1990's, determined South African fans managed to seek out and contact him, leading to an unexpected revival of his musical career. Their story is told in the 2012 Academy Award winning documentary film, Searching for Sugar Man, which has also helped give Rodríguez a measure of fame in his native country. Youth Rodríguez was born in Detroit, Michigan. He was named 'Sixto' (pronounced seesto or seexto) because he was the sixth child in his family. Rodríguez's parents were working-class. His father was an immigrant who had come to the U.S. from Mexico in the 1920s and his mother was of mixed Native American and European descent. In most of his songs he takes a political stance on the cruelties facing the inner city poor. Rodriguez earned a Bachelor of Philosophy Ph.B. from Wayne State University's Monteith College in 1981. Domestic record career In 1967 (under the name Rod Riguez) he released the single "I'll Slip Away" through the small label, Impact. He did not produce anything for another 3 years until he was signed to Sussex Records, an offshoot of Buddah records. It was after the move to Sussex that he changed his professional name to just Rodríguez. Rodríguez recorded 2 albums with Sussex: Cold Fact in 1970 and Coming from Reality in 1971. But after both of his albums sold very few copies, he was quickly dropped from the label, which folded in 1975. At the time of his release from the contract, Rodríguez was in the process of completing a 3rd album which has yet to be released. After this happened, Sixto discontinued his music career and stayed in Detroit. There, he worked in several industries that revolved around manual labor such as demolition, yet always stayed close to a state of poverty. Having remained politically active and motivated to improve the lives of the city's working class inhabitants, Sixto registered and ran for city council in Detroit in 1989. However, the county misspelled his name on the ballot.Searching For Sugar Man It was revealed in 2013 that Sixto has written 30 new songs and is in discussions with Steve Rowland, the producer behind some of his old albums. "I've written about thirty new songs," Sixto told Rolling Stone magazine. "He told me to send him a couple of tapes, so I'm gonna do that. I certainly want to look him up, because now he's full of ideas." Belated fame abroad After failing to make an impact in North America, Rodríguez gave up his career as a musician. However, although he was relatively unknown in his home country, by the mid-1970s, his albums were starting to gain airplay in South Africa, Botswana, Rhodesia, New Zealand, and Australia. After imported copies of his Sussex albums ran dry, an Australian record label, Blue Goose Music, bought the Australian rights to his back catalogue in the mid-1970s. Blue Goose released his two studio albums plus a compilation album ''At His Best (featuring unreleased recordings from 1973 "Can't Get Away", "I'll Slip Away" rerecording of his first single, and "Street Boy"). With a new buzz around Rodriguez, in 1979 he toured Australia with the Mark Gillespie Band as support. 2 shows from the tour were later released on the Australian-only album Alive ''(the title being a play on the rumors caused by his public obscurity that he had died years ago). After the ’79 tour, he returned to Australia for a final tour in 1981 with Midnight Oil before quietly slipping back into normal life. Unbeknownst to Rodríguez, "At His Best" went platinum in South Africa, for a time was the major disk-press interest supplying his music to the rest of the world. He would often be compared to successful contemporaries such as Bob Dylan. Additionally, some of his songs came to serve as anti-apartheid anthems in South Africa, where his work influenced many musicians who protested the government. It has been reported that anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko was a Rodríguez fan.A conversation with Searching For Sugar Man director, Malik Bendjelloul, ''The Independent, 21 December 2012 In 1991, both his albums were released on CD in South Africa for the 1st time, which helped perpetuate his already existent fame. However, even in South Africa, few details of his life were known to his fans and it was widely rumored and believed that Rodríguez had killed himself during a concert in the 1970s. Despite the magnitude of his success abroad, Rodríguez's fame in South Africa had remained completely unknown to him until 1998, when his eldest daughter came across a website dedicated to him. After coming into contact with the authors of the website and learning of his long-standing fame in the country, Sixto went on his first South African tour, playing six concerts in front of thousands of fans. A documentary about the tour, Dead Men Don't Tour: Rodríguez in South Africa 1998, was later screened on SABC TV in 2001. Later he played in Sweden before returning to South Africa in 2001 and 2005. In 1998, his signature song, "Sugar Man", was covered by the South African rock band Just Jinjer. In 2002, the song was used by DJ David Holmes to open his mix album Come Get It I Got It, gaining Rodríguez international airplay again. "Sugar Man" had previously been sampled in the song "You're Da Man" from rapper Nas' 2001 album Stillmatic.Rodríguez – The Music: "...You're Da Man, Sugar Man..." In April 2007 and 2010, he returned to Australia to play the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival,East Coast Blues and Roots Festival (Also known as Byron Bay Bluesfest Archive) as well as shows in Melbourne and Sydney. His song "Sugar Man" was featured in the 2006 film Candy, starring Heath Ledger. Cornish singer-songwriter, Ruarri Joseph, covered Rodríguez's song "Rich Folks Hoax" for his third studio album. Rodríguez now continues to tour in various countries. Rodríguez's albums Cold Fact and Coming from Reality were re-released by Light in the Attic Records in 2009. Searching for Sugar Man In 2012, the Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of the documentary film Searching for Sugar Man, from Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul, detailing the efforts of two South African fans to see if his rumored death was true—and if not, to discover what had become of him. The Simon Chinn- and John Battsek-produced documentary went on to win the World Cinema Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award, World Cinema Documentary.Sundance: The Electrifying Search For Sugar Man In addition to playing at other festivals including the True/False Film Festival and the Traverse City Film Festival, the film opened in New York and Los Angeles on July 27, 2012, before a larger domestic theatrical run. It was also screened as part of cinema programs in some European music festivals during the summer of 2012, including the Way Out West festival in August, where Rodríguez also performed. The Searching for Sugar Man soundtrack features a compilation of Rodríguez tracks from his Cold Fact and Coming from Reality albums, in addition to a previously unreleased single from his 3rd album. The album was released on July 24, 2012. Furthermore, to allay possible customer concerns raised in the film about how Rodríguez was apparently cheated by his previous record label, the back cover has the statement, "Rodríguez receives royalties from the sale of this release." Success in the United States After the cinematic release of Searching for Sugar Man in 2012, Rodríguez experienced a flush of media exposure and fan interest in the United States, as well as Europe. He appeared as a musical guest on the Late Show with David Letterman on August 14, 2012, performing "Crucify Your Mind", and performed "Can't Get Away" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on January 11, 2013. Prominent news coverage has included a mid-August 2012 CNN feature story with an interview of Rodriguez discussing his life and career resurgence. On October 7, 2012, Rodriguez was featured on the U.S. television news program 60 Minutes.Rodríguez: The Rock Icon Who Didn't Know It, reported by Bob Simon, segment produced by Michael Gavshon, CBS News, October 7, 2012. On November 18, 2012, Rodriguez was interviewed on the U.K. Sunday morning news program The Andrew Marr Show, where he also played a short song over the closing credits. He performed on the BBC2 program Later... with Jools Holland on November 16, 2012, and was interviewed by Holland. Additionally, he has performed on the web on such notable web series as The Weekly Comet. The film Searching for Sugar Man strongly implies that Rodriguez may have been cheated out of royalties over the years, specifically by Clarence Avant. This matter is still under investigation, and the legal issues are complicated. Rodriguez first expressed indifference to these "symbols of success" but has since decided to pursue the matter. In addition to concerts in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, Rodriguez's tour schedule for 2013 included his most notable U.S. concerts to date, such as a stint at the Beacon Theatre in New York City in April and a spot at the 2014 Sasquatch Music Festival at The Gorge Amphitheatre, as well as other concerts in Europe. He played on the Park Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, England, in June 2013. On July 5, 2013, Rodriguez opened the Montreux Jazz festival. On August 10, 2013, he headlined at the Wilderness Festival in the U.K. In 2015, he opened for Brian Wilson's tour with Wilson, Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin of The Beach Boys. Rodriguez received additional marketing in 2014 as the Dave Matthews Band often covered "Sugar Man" in their summer tour. Matthews would preface the song with his experience as a fan of Rodriguez growing up in South Africa and his surprise at Rodriguez's (lack of) popularity in the United States. In 2015, Craig Bartholomew Strydom and Stephen "Sugar" Segerman published Sugar Man: The Life, Death and Resurrection of Sixto Rodriguez. A review in Business Day called the book "probably one of the most unusual rock ’n roll stories out there". Rodriguez continues to tour throughout the United States, headlining a run in grand theaters across the continent in August 2018, culminating with a hometown show at Detroit's Garden Theater. Private life Rodriguez has 3 daughters and is separated from his 2nd wife, Konny Koskos. His family is heavily involved in his career and he often takes them along on the road. Recognition In November 2012, Searching for Sugar Man won both the Audience Award and the Best Music Documentary Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Searching for Sugar Man also won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary on February 10, 2013. On January 13, 2013, Searching for Sugar Man was nominated for and, on February 24, 2013, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 85th Academy Awards. Rodriguez declined to attend the award ceremony as he didn't want to overshadow the filmmakers' achievement if he came up on stage with them. Upon accepting his award, Chinn remarked on such generosity: "That just about says everything about that man and his story that you want to know.” However, Malik Bendjelloul also said on stage, "Thanks to one of the greatest singers ever, Rodriguez." See also *List of English-language songwriters References External links ;Audio / video *'Also Known As' *Sixto Rodriguez at YouTube *CBS 60 Minutes story (Originally aired 15 Oct 2012; re-aired 23 Dec 2012) *CBS 60 Minutes Overtime (Web-only accompaniment of 15 Oct 2012 on-air story; three songs) ;About *"The Mystery of the Sugar Man", The Economist, 2012 *[http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/08/popandrock3 Guardian (UK) article] *[http://www.smh.com.au/news/gig-reviews/sixto-rodriguez/2007/04/06/1175366447879.html Sydney Morning Herald article] *Sixto Rodriguez Official website. *Official fan website * *Fact: Rodriguez lives, Mail & Guardian interview, February 20, 1998. *September 2008 interview with the L.A. Record *Official reissue 2008 *[http://www.dailymusicguide.com/Reviews/rodriguez_cold_fact_album_review_29082008_1555.aspx Cold Fact review] *Interview on RocknRollDating *Free associating with Sixto Rodriguez, metrotimes. Category:Songwriters Category:American songwriters